What are Paper Cups made from anyway..?

A Paper Cup is intended primarily as a disposable means to drink a single cup of liquid refreshment, to this end it is manufactured in such a way that it costs a bare minimum to produce and uses a minimum of resources.

Initially cups were waterproofed using a process of spinning a later of clay from the bottom of the cup, hence lining the innards of the vessel and forming a watertight seal, this however had obvious disadvantages. The liquid from these cups became contaminated and tasted of cardboard. The obvious progression from the process was to use wax instead to form the watertight seal in hot and cold drinks cups, however this was quickly phases out with advances in polyethylene. The usage of polyethylene (PE) and seam welding produces a watertight seal suitable for hot and cold drinks, and is the cheapest option in terms of manufacturing.

Paper Cups are made primarily from renewable resources, this basically equates to wood chip (95%) and secondary components such as the PE waterproof layering. As you will no doubt have realized, the almost complete usage of wood chip in the construction of the cups makes them highly recyclable and potentially very green, however it is easy to forget about the PE layering that forms the inner wall of the vessel. Because of this layer (which needs to be separated before any recycling can take place) there can be complications in schemes designed to prevent cups ending up in the landfill.